 "Amnesty International report calls Israel's war in Gaza a genocide")
Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a report from Amnesty International alleged that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip constitutes the “crime of genocide” under international law. The report marked the first such determination by a human rights organisation in the conflict which has wreaked havoc in Gaza for over 14 months.
In the 32-page report, published on Thursday, the organisation examined events in Gaza between October 2023 to July 2024. The body found that Israel had “brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell” on the strip’s 2.3 million population. Amnesty maintained that the “atrocity crimes” committed by Hamas during October 7 in southern Israel, did “not justify genocide”.
“Israel has committed prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians” in the territory, the report said.
What makes the report significant
It is pertinent to note that this is the first time Amnesty has accused Israel of committing “crimes of genocide” during an ongoing conflict. The report came months after a UN special rapporteur for Palestine concluded in March that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call: this is genocide and it must stop now,” Agnès Callamard, the group’s secretary general, said in a news conference on Wednesday. The body also accused Israel of deliberate obstruction of aid and power supplies together with “massive damage, destruction and displacement.”
Amnesty International also cited the collapse of water, sanitation, food and healthcare systems, in what it called a “pattern of conduct” within the context of the occupation and blockade of Gaza. “We did not necessarily start out thinking we would come to this conclusion. We knew there was a risk of genocide, as the International Court of Justice said,” Budour Hassan, Amnesty’s Israel and occupied Palestinian territories researcher, told The Guardian. “When you join the dots together, the totality of the evidence, it is not just violations of international law. This is something deeper,” Hassan added.
What are the main allegations?
The following are the main allegations Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing in Gaza:
The unprecedented scale and magnitude of the military offensive were conducted at a speed and level unmatched in any other 21st-century conflict.
“Intent to destroy” and Israel’s callous disregard for civilian life in the pursuit of Hamas.
Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm in repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Inflicting conditions of life were calculated to bring about physical destruction.
Amnesty went on to urge the United Nations to enforce a ceasefire and impose sanctions on top Israeli and Hamas officials. The rights group also asked the
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